This may not have the Hollywood ending that many would have liked to have seen, but this story does have Hollywood roots. The saga begins March 2008. Francisco “Chico” Herrera was an 18 year old high school baseball player from Hollywood High School when he was hired to be a ball boy for his Los Angeles Dodgers. Job Description: If a player needs something, he gets it. It is thankless, detail-oriented, unglamorous work. Except for Chico, this was the greatest job in the world. He will never forget his first day on the job.
“I’ll never forget the first time I saw them come off the bus outside the stadium. I was 18 years old, my first day on the job, and their bus came in the lot from spring training. I saw ’em, and they were so tall. I’d never seen them up close. They all gave me handshakes and stuff. I was just speechless. It was the best day of my life.”
Chico was living his dream when 3 years later, he was in the outfield playing catch with Jon Garland. Chico had somewhat of a “rep” as someone with a good arm. He had made some “noticeable” catches while shagging baseballs during BP. The STORY as Chico recalls:
“Jon Garland and I were playing catch in the outfield,” Herrera said. “He was hurting at the time, but he could still play catch and he’s like, ‘You really do have a good arm. When are you going to try out?’”
Try out?
“He was like, ‘Let me talk to De Jon for you [De Jon Watson is the Dodgers’ assistant general manager for player development]. I’ll get you the tryout, but if you make it, I get to represent you.’
“I thought he was kidding.”
But as it turns out, Jon was not kidding, because when the team returned from a road trip the next week, Chico got the word. Garland told him he was getting that invitation to the open tryout the first week in March 2012. De Jon was more than happy to confirm the news.
Everyone knew that the chances were verrrrryyyyy long that Chico would be the next Jim Morris (The Rookie). But to get that chance? How great is that? When De Jon was asked about Chico’s tryout he responded,
“I don’t know much about this kid except that Jon Garland flagged me down in the clubhouse last year,” Watson said. “I’ve seen him down the foul lines, he makes some pretty good catches.” (Such as this marvelous one last season.)
“You watch him in BP and he’s out there power-shagging in the outfield. Like, ‘Who is this kid?’
“So yeah, we’ll take a look at him. You never know. Guys change, they mature, they grow. You never know until you take a look at him.”
Rod Barajas is another success story emanating from an open tryout. Barajas began his 14 year seven team career, including two years with the Dodgers, being signed from an Arizona DBacks open tryout. Why not Chico?
While this is a good story, it really points to another problem MLB seems to be facing today.
Chico was just some wide-eyed kid who just showed up and got the dream job. He was an outstanding high school SS for Hollywood HS. Per Cary Cauley, his HS coach, Chico never hit less than .300 in every year of his HS career. developed into a slick-fielding, strong-armed shortstop. His junior year he hit .423 with 30 stolen bases. As a senior he hit over .500 and was top-three in the City Section in stolen bases.
“He’s pretty legit. He’s quick, so he’s got a lot of range. And he has the best arm in high school that I’ve seen in a long time,” said Cauley, who was an all-league player at La Habra High in the mid-1990s. “Out of high school, he could’ve played Division I baseball. But he’s gotten a lot better since then.”
Great follow up question, then why didn’t he get that D-1 offer?
“We’re considered inner-city baseball; nobody really comes to these games,” Cauley said. “They don’t come here because, as you can see, we play on a football field that only becomes a baseball field the first week of our season. We have zero budget, no paid assistants; when he first got here we didn’t even have uniforms.”
No complaints, just the way it is with many of these inner-city programs. Eight months out of the year the baseball field is also the school’s football field. How does the baseball team prepare for the season during football? They take grounders and fly balls on the tennis courts. And forget batting cages.
Chico was a little more focused and creative. He taught himself how to switch hit by hitting a “tape ball” in his front yard. What happens to the others who do not have that resourcefulness?
“The biggest problem I’ve seen here is that any kid with talent gives up pretty quick because they haven’t seen people go on with it,” Cauley said. “They aren’t seeing kids around them go on to college or play in the minors; he’s the first. He’s the example we give to everyone who plays for us.”
Thanks to Cauley’s assistant coach, Billy Hall, Chico got the opportunity to play college ball.
“This doesn’t happen every day,” said Hall, who pitched in the Astros’ organization from 1994-98 before a shoulder injury ended his career. “But this kid deserves it. He’s the only guy I’ve ever called a coach for.” Hall said he called the coaching staff at Valley College on Herrera’s behalf.
How does it happen with all the gazillionaires in Hollywood that the local HS cannot even have their own baseball field with batting cages? It isn’t just Hollywood HS. Check out the facilities (or lack thereof) for almost every inner-city school.
I do not know about the other MLB organizations, but thanks to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw, Justin Turner and Magic Johnson (and countless others), they are starting to make a difference. See the story below,
Colorado Rockies CF, Ian Desmond, has chosen to opt out of the 2020 season. Instead he is going to spend the season on another baseball field that needs help…a Little League diamond in Sarasota, Florida, where he grew up. He’ll work to get the town’s youth baseball league “back on track,”.
This is an outstanding start to give the inner-city kids a great facilities. But why does it need to stop there. What about the high schools? I have to believe that MLB players who played for some of these inner-city HS baseball programs could go back and put some financial and sweat equity into rebuilding their facilities. My guess is that too many give up because of the bureaucracy dealing with school boards. Okay, maybe because of the bureaucracy capital improvements would be stalled. But how about funding for equipment, getting MLB teammates to come to the HS for a work party to “fix the field”, dugouts, and clubhouse? How special would that be for the kids? How about subsidizing top notch coaches with network connections to colleges and pro scouts? Is this too hard to put together?
Okay, down from my soap box.
Oh yeah, what happened to Chico and his tryout?
“He came to the tryout with the same energy and passion we’ve seen at the Stadium,” Dodgers assistant general manager De Jon Watson said. “He ran well and he showed us some arm strength. he still has more work to do with his swing from both sides of the plate though.”
He showed well enough to get to play in the scrimmage, but alas, Chico was not signed. Two other players were signed, but you have to be a real Dodger MiLB fan to have heard about 27-year-old right-handed pitcher Blake Johnson — originally drafted by the club in 2004, who played with the Rockies Triple-A affiliate in 2011 — and Brandon Mims, a 19-year-old switch hitter who played in the Blue Jays organization in 2010.
So maybe he did not get that contract, but he did get to start in LF for one of the two Los Angeles Dodgers teams in Wednesday’s intrasquad game, and caught the final out of the game. Chico, you are the Man.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I need to give credit to Ramona Shelburne for the background of this story. Most of what I have written came from an ESPN LA article she wrote in 2012. Jon Garland is a close family friend and I have never heard this story. I am going to have to speak with Jon about Chico Herrera the next time I see him.
Discussion (43)
Disagree, not disagreeable
As a follow up to Bear’s Mira Costa High School baseball alums. There was one other than Joe Moeller. A LHP named Jim Pena pitched for SF Giants in 1992. He appeared in 25 games and pitched 44.0 innings and ended with a 1-1 record.
My high school was James Monroe, and we had 8 players from Monroe that played MLB. The most distinguished was probably the one who had the hardest job. Doug DeCinces had the job of replacing Brooks Robinson in Baltimore. Doug and I graduated in 1969. He went on to have a very productive 15 year career including 8 years with Baltimore, 6 years with California, and 1 year with St. Louis. His best years were with the Angels where he was an AS, and was #3 in MVP vote in 1982. He won two SS in 1982/1983.
One very fun story that turned tragic. I graduated High School on June 20, 1969. We went to Disneyland for Grad Night, and as we were loading the bus, the baseball team learned that a former Monroe baseball player, Paul Edmondson was making his ML debut with the Chicago White Sox that night across the street at Anaheim Stadium. Paul had an outstanding debut as he won 9-1 on a 2-hitter. He pitched very well for the rest of the year, but did not have anything to show for it as he went 1-6 with a 3.70 ERA in 13 starts and 87.2 IP. How it turned tragic was on February 13, 1970, while traveling south on rain-soaked U.S. Route 101 near Santa Barbara, the day after his 27th birthday, his automobile skidded and crashed into oncoming northbound traffic, killing Edmondson and his passenger, Lauraine Leas, 22, of Simi Valley, California. They had traveled from Simi to San Luis Obispo where Lauraine would be attending Cal Poly the following semester. The tragedy occurred only two weeks prior to spring training, and the White Sox had hoped that Edmondson would become the fourth starter in the rotation. I had forgotten that story until I was researching, and it all came back to me. While I did not know Paul, I did know others who I graduated with or very close to my graduating year who were killed in Vietnam, including a very close friend I had known all through Junior High and High School. Times most of us put out of our memories.
Stephen Fife, I believe, was a Boise, Idano boy.
Tonights game is on facebook with one camera and no sound.
Why bother?
Eric Stephen is reporting the Brett de Geus was added to the player pool
Also Jake Vogel.
Wonder if that was part of the package to induce him to sign and not go to UCLA
Fun story Jeff! The dream lives on in the hearts of so many!!
Good news! DeGeus and Vogel have been added to the 60-man roster and DeGeus is one of the pitchers supposedly getting some work in tonight’s intersquad game. Others to watch out for are Mitchell White, Graterol, Michael Grove and Victor Gonzalez. This should be interesting.
Chico playing left again. As long as they’re doing that the should throw Vogel out there and let the bird fly.
Current players who have decided to opt out for 2020 is now up to 10:
Nationals – Wellington Castillo (C), Ryan Zimmerman (1B), Joe Ross (SP)
Braves – Felix Hernandez (SP), Nick Markakis (OF)
DBacks – Mike Leake (SP)
Pirates – Hector Noesi (RP)
Dodgers – David Price (SP)
Rockies – Ian Desmond (OF)
Giants (Before Release) – Tyson Ross (SP)
Thank you all for refreshing my memory regarding Stephen Fife. Wish him well in his future endeavors.
My grandson graduated from Torrance HS. He was a pitcher on the Tartans varsity team, a lefty. I seem to recall another Dodger from that school, but can not remember his name. I hate getting older.
DBM, it appears that there were a few of us who remembered Stephen Fife. Regardless of what the numbers may say, he was a MLB pitcher.
Stephen Fife had parts of three seasons with the Dodgers – 2012, 2013, 2014. – 89 innings pitched.
He played in the minors with the Cub and Miami franchises after that with an overall total of 10 minor league seasons. He was initially drafted by the Red Sox in the third round of the 2008 draft.
In 2017 he played with the Saitama Seibu Lions in the Japanese League.
In 2018 he played with the AAA Columbus Clippers in the Cleveland organization. He elected free agency after the 2018 season and there are no stats for 2019. He is currently 33.
For those who did not see the intrasquad game, it was reported that Tony Gonsolin made it to camp. No indication on the telecast was made as to the reason.
It was also reported that per Dave Roberts, KJ is not considering opting out. I have zero idea how accurate that reporting is. If KJ does decide to opt out, with his heart condition, I would certainly not blame him.
Perhaps one of the reasons as to why Chico Herrera was playing LF, was that AJ has not yet reported and Gavin Lux had not yet reported so CT3 played infield and not OF. Also Max Muncy was out with a sore finger after getting HBP, so Matt Beaty needed to play 1B (as did Rocky Gale). Finally we learned yesterday that Zach Reks and Cody Thomas have been placed on the 10 day IL. No indication as to the injury. Thus the Dodgers were down to 5 healthy OF; Joc, Belli, Mookie, DJ Peters, and Luke Raley. How long do they wait before Jeren Kendall is at least added to the 60-man pool.
Again for those that did not see the game last night, Corey Seager and Edwin Rios both had two hit games, with Rios hitting the bomb to score the night’s only run. Corey stayed on a Adam Kolarek breaking ball and went to LF with a solid line drive single. Corey showing that he can stay on LHP. Kolarkek may not be able to consistently get RH batters out, but he is outstanding against LH batters. Good hit by Corey. His second hit was a sharp ground ball single into CF. Luke Raley got a single with the help of the pitcher’s rubber, while Rocky Gale and Mookie Betts got singles in the 3rd before Joc flew out to LF (Chico Herrera) to end the game. Several half innings were cut to 2 outs due to pitch count. Kike’ also went to the opposite field with a solid line drive into RF with a good catch by Luke Raley. Now the question is, were the hitters really staying back and going with the pitch, or did they have problems picking up the pitch until late as Max has intimated. Not particularly a well pitched game. I did not think that any pitcher stood out. Dennis Santana went 1-2-3 in his half inning, but there were some hard hit balls on pitches that he badly missed on.
Watched game on FB last night. I know it was only 3 innings but thought the pitchers did well, along with Rios and Seager. I just made my day to see a Dodger baseball game again.
Along memory lane, I ran into a lady on Facebook, a commenter who said her son pitched for the Dodgers. His name was Stephen Fife. I vaguely remember him and wonder what happened to him. Does anyone know?
2021 schedule is out. We open Apr 1 at Colorado.
https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/schedule/2021-04?partnerId=it-1348549-5690-1875810
I really enjoyed watching Chico last night. Little did I know he graduated from my old high school. Of course, I graduated just a few years ahead of him, in 1964.
It’s interesting to read that Hollywood High is described as an “inner city” school. Everyone’s definition of inner city is different, I suppose, but the house I lived in when I lived in Hollywood (1.5 miles from school) is listed on Zillow today as being worth $3MM. My folks sold that house in the mid 70’s for way less than $1MM so property values are continuing to appreciate in that area. I guess there is inner city and then there is inner city. Labels are just labels anyway and I hope Chico enjoyed his time at HHS as much as I did.
Sorry to see that the baseball programs at these kind of schools are basically step children to the football programs and that they are so ridiculously underfunded. Hopefully the work the Dodgers and some of their players are doing will lead to some changes in that regard and also to more participation in baseball by minority athletes in the future. Too bad MLB is such a mess these days because they need to be spending a lot more money to help out high schools in districts where there is a funding shortage.
The day is still young Jeff, but you’ve made mine already… Excellent stuff…
I know it’s been a couple days, but I’ve got to reminisce a little bit on the death of Charley Daniels… I was lucky enough to see Charley in Santa Monica with Leonard Skynard who was one of my favorites… Even from a distance Charley’s hat looked like it could double as pup tent for small child. They called out to the audience for a friend to join them and Elvin Bishop (small stature Big Guitar) strolled up to the stage to join Skynard and Daniels in a rendition of Free Bird… Needless to say it was an epic guitar battle… I always considered the above folks Country rock, which pissed off my country loving brother…
Oh well, sorry for the intrusion, but it beats inflated death rates..
Go Blue
Great story. He had some skills, just not enough to merit a deal. Where I went to school, Mira Costa in Manhattan Beach, we had a huge field. No fence on the field we played on, but it was large enough to have a practice field where the JV would practice on the other end of the field. We had a very good Varsity coach in John Rhodes. He was the coach when Joe Moeller played there. Joe played for the Dodgers for a few years. My baseball dreams ended when I joined the Army when I was 17. But I knew I did not have the skill set to play in the bigs. I had not really played enough organized baseball to get that good. But I was lucky where I was. I have seen the facilities at the inner city schools in LA> Compared to what we had, they were abysmal. There is no excuse for denying any student at any school the facilities to make them have a better chance at success. And it is not only in the area of sports. Mira Costa’s music program and shops were some of the best in the school system. Our music building was so well built that we could not hear the band practice, and they were in the room right next to us. Our shops were well stocked with the materials needed to do school projects in metal, wood, or electric shops. The auto program got a steady stream of vehicles for the kids to practice on. The main reason for this is because we were part of a totally different school district. Mira Costa was part of South Bay Unified School District. High income area meant more tax money for education. A school I would have gone to for a short time had I not left to join the Army, Belmont High in downtown LA basically, was part of LA Unified, which serviced all of the inner city schools, most of the schools in the outlying communities too. Long Beach had it’s own district. All of the arts and sports programs have suffered over the years Music has taken a huge hit. Even the shops are not as good as they were then. This falls on the politicians. They have not given education the support it needs to produce well educated and versatile students. Baseball can do a lot for the baseball programs if they so decide. But making the schools better is on those who run the system.